See you @@ the Finish Line- Our Dark Side Half Marathon Weekend Adventure

[MommaoffherRocker]

Park 3- Animal Kingdom

The express bus dropped us off behind the scenes by the Festival of the Lion King. When your back stage you have a cast member with you at all times. They were all great and talk to us about our day and where we were from etc. There was one that really stood out at AK. Becky had been taking notes and tweeting at Disney when we came across exception cast members. The next day Disney tweeted back at her with a picture of the AK cast member holding up a picture of us and a thank you. It was cool to see them acknowledge her posts!

We stopped by the tree of life to have our picture taken.


Then we headed to EE. When we used our last fastpass at MK we went ahead and made one for EE so we didn't have to wait. This was Liam's first time riding and he was nervous. As you can see in our picture he was hiding in my lap.





Liam ended up loving the ride and wanting to go again. But we didn't spend much time in AK because we wanted to get to HS. The boys picked up Wilderness Explorer books so we did a couple activities out of it and then got on the express bus to HS.

Next up: PARK 4!!!

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[rteetz]

So I am way late but I am here!

Looks awesome so far! Great use of the express bus.

 

[MommaoffherRocker]

Looks awesome so far! Great use of the express bus.

Thanks!

 

[MommaoffherRocker]

Ok I had to change the title of this thread, it was bugging me. I hope I didn't cause too much confusion for you guys

and here are some pictures from @wehrengrizz, she is having some trouble posting them


Here is our photographic proof of being in parks 1-3


And Will the awesome cast member that took us to the express bus. He is holding a print out of our thank you.



Becky and Liam on Spaceship Earth. Becky is apparently very impressed with Liam's mad checker playing skills.






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[MommaoffherRocker]

Park 4- Hollywood Studios

Yay! HS! The finally park in the challenge.




The express bus drop off point was behind RnR. The cast members informed us that the last express bus back to MK was going to be 9:20 pm. We were going to go back to see Wishes so we took note and knew that we couldn't be late for that one. We walked out of that courtyard and into what seemed like a mad house. I guess everyone was waiting for Fantasmic. It seemed a little early but it was the only explanation. We stopped in the food court area and had our dinner that we had packed ourselves.

After that we headed over near TSMM. We were going to wait in line for Buzz and Woody but ultimately decided to ride TSMM and save the meet n greet for Saturday. The wait time was listed as 30 minutes but I don't think we waited nearly that long for it. We teamed up moms vs. sons. Of course the moms won and the sons were not too happy

When we got off we headed to One Man's Dream. Killian was so amped to walk through the attraction. He loves Walt and has done numerous reports on him in school. On the way out we struck up a conversation with the cast member at the door. It turns out when he was a boy he met Walt and got to take a ride on one of his model trains. Then when he grew up he became an imagineer for Disney.



We thought we had made fastpasses for RnR so we headed that way. We walked up right at closing time and we didn't end up having fastpasses but there was no wait so we got in line. Liam did not want to ride so I took him and headed to the rider unload area. After Becky and Killian got off they let us do a rider swap. I had never ridden it before and I really wanted to so Killian and I headed to the loading area. We ended up being the only people on the ride so we got front row seats in our own private limo.



I loved the ride!


We had just enough time to make it to the express bus when we were done. We checked in and waited 5 minutes to get on a bus. This time there were quite a few more people getting on the bus to MK. I guess that was to be expected since MK had EMH that evening.

Up Next: Bonus Park

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[TeeterTots]

I love the 4 park in one day idea, especially with the express bus. The price is well worth it! My DD just rode EE for the first time a few weeks ago and although she was brave, she has no desire to ride again anytime soon.

 

[ZellyB]

You guys are rocking your day! I can't believe how much you are getting done while hitting up all 4 parks. Awesome.

 

[roxymama]

Caught up on your trip report so far and this looks like the most fun ever! I think three parks is the most I've ever managed so congrats on that feat of parkhopping! It's so nice you got some mom/kiddo bonding time. Looking forward to the rest of your journey....and THOSE EARS!!! You did such an awesome job on the custom ears!!!

 

[MommaoffherRocker]

My DD just rode EE for the first time a few weeks ago and although she was brave, she has no desire to ride again anytime soon.

DS7 had a similar experience, I was actually surprised Liam liked it so much.

You guys are rocking your day! I can't believe how much you are getting done while hitting up all 4 parks. Awesome.

Thanks! We definitely paid for it later

It's so nice you got some mom/kiddo bonding time.

Yeah it is pretty rare in our house to get one on one time so it was nice to get a whole week with just Liam.

and THOSE EARS!!! You did such an awesome job on the custom ears!!!

Thanks! I tried to find you a ears GIF but I couldn't get past this one

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[Sailormoon2]

Loving your report so far! Cant wait to hear about the races.

 

[roxymama]

Bwahahaha!! Tiny cat Mickey!!!!!

 

[cavepig]

Great report so far! The ears are so cool! Express bus sounds awesome, I debated it but we decided not too. My parents are down now and using it so that schedule you posted it great! You guys look like you were having a blast!

 

[rteetz]

Awesome day! I have yet to do 4 parks in one day. The express bus would be a must for that.

 

[MommaoffherRocker]

Loving your report so far! Cant wait to hear about the races.

Thanks!

so that schedule you posted it great!

Always glad to help! I'm a little surprised they don't tell you the schedule when you buy it.

Great report so far! The ears are so cool!

Thanks!

I have yet to do 4 parks in one day. The express bus would be a must for that.

It is so much fun and way easier than I thought. But I am sure the express bus had a lot to do with it.

 

[MommaoffherRocker]

Back to where we started from!

We arrived at MK about 30 minutes before Wishes. Because we had some time we did a little browsing at the Merchant of Venus shop. There they sold the cast member name tags that were Star Wars themed. Liam really liked them but we didn't have enough time to get it so we decided we would come back after Wishes. When we left the shop we headed towards the hub to find a spot for the fireworks. Luckily there were some open spots on the bridge. They did have a little obstruction but nothing major.



It was the perfect spot to see Tink fly by. I wish I could have gotten a picture but she just looked like a blur. The fireworks were great as always and I loved the projections on the castle!

When the fireworks were finish we went back to the store. I got Liam his name tag and then we headed next door to Auntie Gravity's to get ice cream. The girl at the register asked us about our day and we told her all about the 4 park challenge she was so impressed she bought us our ice cream!


We seriously met the best cast members on this trip!!

We ate our ice cream and then went back to the hub to see the new projection show on the castle. I,t thankfully, wasn't as crowded as the fireworks and we found pretty good spots in the front. As it finished Killian realized he dropped his magic band. We tried to trace our footsteps to find it but we never did. Not letting that get us down we headed to Fantasyland to get on some rides.

The boys rode barnstormer a couple times.



Liam and Me and the photo bomber


By this time it was 11pm and it was extra magic hours. EMH went until 2am. We thought no way we would make it to 2 but we would go until we got tired. We stopped to meet Ariel and then headed to BTMRR. Liam wanted to ride 7D but it was still a crazy 70 minute wait BTMRR was maybe 10 and it was so awesome to ride in the dark.


On our way to BTMRR we locked up the boys




Up next: The night continues ​

 

[Sailormoon2]

That's some awesome pixie dust you got on the ice cream!!! Looks like an awesome late night at MK!!

 

[ZellyB]

What a great bit of pixie dust with the free ice cream! I can't believe you guys are still going!!!

 

[MommaoffherRocker]

That's some awesome pixie dust you got on the ice cream!!!

I know, it was totally unexpected!

What a great bit of pixie dust with the free ice cream! I can't believe you guys are still going!!!

I'm telling you I needed a vacation from my vacation after this trip, we were non stop!

 

[Mimsy Borogove]

Joining in! I absolutely love your opening Star Wars-esque crawl, the custom ears and shirts are so cute, and I have that same Raw Threads Dole whip shirt (so comfy!). It sounds like you had some really great CM encounters (so refreshing to hear) and I wish I had your endurance for the 4-park challenge; DH and I did it years ago on a day trip to Disney (what were we thinking?) but not so sure we could do it now. Thanks for posting the information about the express transportation, too, sounds like it was well worth the cost! Looking forward to the rest of your TR!

 

[MommaoffherRocker]

The End to the Never Ending Day!

After BTMRR we stopped for a picture with the Rapunzel lantern. That was one of my absolute must get pictures of the trip.




Then we rode Small World. After we got off that we still had time so we got in line for the Princesses. First we saw Elena and Cindy.

Elena was so great. I haven't really seen her show but my daughters love her so I got a picture for them.

Then we saw Tiana and Rapunzel.



Tiana was mad at me because I recently went to New Orleans and had Beignets at Cafe Du Monde and not her restaurant

How did I not get any pictures of Rapunzel!?

As you can see Liam did not want to meet any of the Princesses. For those of you that don't know he has Asperger's and the thought of meeting them (plus all the other stimulation from the parks) immediately put him in shutdown mode. He did open up later in the trip and meet some of the characters but he didn't talk to them. It helped that he got to see Killian interact with them. We also did a lot of pin trading on this trip. I have to give Becky and Killian the credit for that one, Liam really enjoyed it and it helped him interact with others.

So while we wait for Killian and Becky the photographer noticed Liam and asked him to check his camera for a scratch. While he was looking the guy snapped a picture. It was hilarious!



Ok it was finally closing time. 2am we made it! But wait we had to snap a quick pic with the carriage.



Then one with the lit up castle.



and who doesn't love a picture from a random strange on Buzz

Ok now we can leave.

We stopped by Guest Services to fill out comment cards for all the wonderful cast members we came across throughout the day and check if Killian's band had been turned in. No luck. We then got on the packed bus back to Pop.

We had to pretty much drag the boys off the bus at our stop. They were so tired and it was 3:30am by this time. When we walk in the room something was off. The stuffed animals the boys had left on the beds were gone. We started to tear the room apart, looking everywhere we could. They were the only things that were missing. So strange. Becky called the front desk and explained our situation. They were baffled too and placed Becky on hold. Then Becky says we have looked everywhere and unless they put them in the window they aren't here. So I walk over, pull back the curtain and there they were. Mousekeeping had decorated with them! When the cast member came back on the line Becky told them where we found them and they cracked up. It was definitely time for bed!

Up Next: Animal Kingdom and Expo







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